The Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year is held during the Leicester Comedy Festival every February. All the finalists picked are nominated by the UK's top comedy clubs and must meet certain criteria. The competition is sponsored by a local newspaper, the Leicester Mercury, and Equity, the actors union.
Winners and Finalists
1995 Stevie Knuckles
1996 Jo Enright, Gary O’Donnell, Colin the Fireman, Marcus Cockrell, Bob May
1997 Johnny Vegas, Natalie Haynes, Kevin Kopfstein, Leslie Gibson
1998 Mitch Benn, Reginald D Hunter (2nd), TJ Murphy, Mark James, Mary Bourke, Pete Bennett, Johnny Kinch, Jack Mann, Darrel Martin,
1999 Patrick Kitterick, Dominic Frisbee, Meryl O’Rourke, Kevin Clarke, David Keay, Michael Tombs, Kat Nilsson
2000 Jason Manford, Jason Whitehead, Silky, Sean O’Reilly, Barry Glendenning, Eddie Kaulkner
2001 Miles Jupp Jimmy Carr, John Ryan
2002 Matt Blaize, Bill Wooland, Quincy, Rob Mager, Karen Bailey, Nick Gray, Kevin Dewsbury
2003 Rhod Gilbert, Greg Davies (2nd), Claire Pollard, Simon Amstell, Greg Cook, Donna Spence, Greg McHugh, Marek Larwood
2004 Matt Hollins, Russell Kane (2nd), Matt and Faron, Brandi Borr, Anna Keirle, Chris Roche, Mel Barnes, Matt Dyktynski
2005 Debra-Jane Appelby, Dave Longley, Peter Aterman, Lee Bannard, Lee Brace, Quentin Reynolds, Sam Avery
2006 James Branch, Emma Fryer
2007 Carl Donnelly, Sean Moran, Matt Rudge, Johnny Sorrow, Jason Kavan, Jim Smallman, Paul Smith
2008 Henry Paker, Jack Whitehall (2nd), Andi Osho, Gareth Richards, Helen Keen, Luke Benson, Sam Harlan, Tony Simpson
2009 Seann Walsh, Fergus Craig, Grainne Maquire, Joe Bor, Chris Stokes, Carl Hutchinson, Chris Ramsey, Tom Adams
2010 Josh Widdicombe , Ivo Graham, Tom McDonnell, Jake Mills, Rob Beckett, Dan Bland, Ben Davids, Ade Ikoli
2011 Tom Rosenthal & Ben Target, Inel Tomlinson, Suzi Ruffell, Luke Benson, Henry Widdicombe, Michael J Dolan, Pete Walsh
2012 Matt Rees , Chris Turner, Darren Connell, Danny Sutcliffe, Richard Hanrahan, Joe Wells, Liam Williams
2013 Romesh Ranganathan, Lucy Beaumount, Adam Hess, Jamie Demetriou, Danny Ward, Tez Ilyas, Mark Simmons, Kwame Asante
2014 Kate Lucas, Phil Jerrod (2nd), Mark Silcox (3rd), Dane Baptiste, Dave Green, Elliot Green, Harriet Kemsley, Daisy Earl
2015 Tom Little, Ingrid Dahle (2nd), Stephanie Laing, Kiri Pritchard-Mclean, Emma Kearney aka Penella Mellor, David Jordan, Jake Lambert, Lolly Adepfope
2016 Tom Lucy, George Lewis (2nd), Rob Mulholland (3rd), Yuriko Kotani, Ed Patrick, Nigel Ng, Twayna Mayne, Travis Jay
2017 Alasdair Beckett-King, Sindhu Vee (2nd), Alex Mahoney, Ed Night, George Rigden, Kelly Convey, Tom Houghton, Tom Mayhew
Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
